Olympic Park's rain forests more likely to fall victim to wildfires in drought year

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Typically, damage from a lightning storm in Washington's rain forests would end as soon as the clouds cleared, or shortly after. But a few years ago, it was just the beginning.

A lightning storm moved in over Olympic National Park in May 2015. Conditions were such that a lightning strike in May triggered a devastating wildfire in the Queets River valley, an area that can see over 200 inches of rain in a year.

The strike was believed to have smoldered for a month before the fire was first detected on June 14 near Paradise Creek. By the time crews responded, the Paradise Fire had burned 200 acres, The Seattle Times reported. It burned 2,815 acres of rain forest before it was declared extinguished on Oct. 16.

When conditions lined up just right, even the Olympic National Park, home to the largest swath of rain forest in the U.S., went up in flames. It wasn't the first time, and it likely won't be the last.

Four years ago, the state experienced one of the worst droughts in its history. On April 1, 2015, parts of the Olympic Peninsula were at just 3% of their normal snowpack levels for that time of year. A drought was declared in that area on March 13, 2015. Rain did fall that winter, but unusually warm temperatures prevented the rain from turning to snow. An exceptionally warm spring dried out the lichen and mosses growing on old trees, as well as the ferns below.

This year is expected to be another big wildfire year, especially west of the Cascades in Washington. A dry winter and start to spring were not negated by heavy snow in February.

Conditions do seem better than they were four years ago. As of April 1, the day considered to be the day snowpack reaches its peak, Olympic National Park had a snowpack about 74% of normal. Again, not nearly as dire as the 3% reported in 2015, but also the lowest snowpack level seen on April 1 since 2015.

Fires have already hit this year -- over 170 in the state of Washington so far. Fifty of those fires happened during one week in March.

And fires in the rain forest are not completely unheard of, even if it sometimes gets over 16 feet of rain in a year. Evidence suggests large fires burned thousands of acres on the Olympic Peninsula around 300-500 years ago, as well as in the early 1900s.

Lightning has ignited about half of the fires at Olympic National Park since it was established in 1938. Moist vegetation slows their spread and rains following a lightning storm, so they are often quickly extinguished. Most lightning fires in Olympic National Park are less than a quarter acre in size, according to the National Park Service.

But fires like the Hoh fire of 1978 and the Chimney fire in 1981 were also discovered weeks after their likely ignition.

Humans have caused more fires in the last 40 years than lightning, but account for less acreage burned. The 1,170-acre Beaver fire in 1985 was caused by a campfire built during a period of high fire danger when fires were banned in the park. A 1,600-acre fire burned on the eastern edge of the forest in 2018, also believed to have been caused by a campfire, KING 5 reported.

This year, drought has already hit the region. Earlier this week, Gov. Jay Inslee declared a drought emergency to cover about half of the state, as snowpack dipped to less than 50% of normal for affected regions. The Olympic National Park was one such region, with a snowpack level at 47% of normal as of May 19.